Kokino

For those who love aliens and ancient mysteries, Kokino is one of the few Macedonian attractions that may beckon.  Located northeast of Kumanovo near a village with the same name, Kokino is an ancient observatory that helped people during ancient times understand and mark calendars through lunar and solar movements.  Artifacts were recently found in the area, and many of them date back to almost 4000 years ago.  Thus there is evidence to suggest that people settled in the region since the Bronze Age.

Reaching the mountaintop, it is not evident that this mountain stands out as being an observatory.  Yet the stone tops were cut in a way to mark the moon and sun in their most extreme positions in relation to earth, marking the yearly equinoxes, as well as some of the year's full moons.  One can sit on a "throne" carved from the mountain in order to observe the celestial objects measured through the stone markers.  Furthermore, NASA has named this observatory one of the most impressive ancient observatories in the world (joining others like Stonehenge).   One can learn more about Kokino through the movie link below (subtitles are provided):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEIF6KHSLVc

We were about a week off of the Spring Equinox, but we did manage to travel to Kokino on the day Europe reset its clocks forward by one hour.  Therefore, waking up at 4:30AM to catch the ride to Kokino really felt like a 3:30AM wakeup call.  We eventually caught a bumpy kombi ride from Kumanovo to the isolated spot near Kokino.  All of the morning dew and rain had frozen, so we were welcome to Kokino surrounded by the beautifully frosted surroundings.  At the top of Kokino, we braced the frigid winds and imbibed the breathtaking views of the surrounding area.  For me, this was the coldest calendar that I had ever visited.

Dropped off at the base of Kokino

The view of the surrounding area from the top of the observatory

The solar and lunar markers from the POV of the "throne"

Part of our group

After, we headed north from Kokino to continue along the same path which a few hiking groups were spearheading.  We unfortunately took a wrong turn and were forced to scale down a forested hill covered in slippery, soggy leaves.  Eventually we scaled to the top of the mountain facing Kokino only to discover that we still had a few more ascents and descents to undergo before the end of our hike.  The latter part of our hike hugged the Serbian-Macedonian border (where I illegally traveled out of country for sporadic, multi-second bursts of rebelliousness).  Finally, a few of us accidentally became separated from the group and wandered off trail, adding many more kilometers to our hike before we found our path again.

We ended the 6.5-hour hike at the Memorial Center near Pelince, where we enjoyed a few beers before our ride back to Kumanovo.  In my opinion, Kokino was not the most impressive visit that I made during my Peace Corps service, but I was elated to enjoy another gorgeous hike so early in the year.  I only wish the photos that I took with my crummy smart phone could do the hike more justice.

Much warmer temperatures upon our descent from Kokino